No suicides for BYU

If in line with the national average, BYU should experience three suicides per year.

While that's a nice statistic, it's tempered by the fact that

there have been 35 attempts in the same span.

But I bet there's a big difference in intentions between suicide attempts and actual suicides. I'm guessing that most people who attempt suicide are really just ... calling out for help more than seriously attempting to end their own life--at least I hope that's the case.

In addition to giving those stats, the article contrasts BYU with NYU, which has just had their 6th suicide in the last year (out of their 18,000 undergrad students). That's scary to think about.

It's good to know that this isn't a huge problem here. Do you think it's the natural support system of our student wards that's helping to control it?

I'm not so sure because the article says,

In 2001, Utah had the 13 highest suicide rate in the United States, with 13.8 suicides per 100,000 people, according to a study by Suicide Prevention Action Network USA, Inc.

and I don't see what the difference would be between us in student wards versus the majority of people around the state who attend family wards.

Most of the students on BYU come from places other than Utah. BYU is not just a sample taken from the Utah population so you should not be suprised when Utah ranks somewhere and BYU is somewhere else on the scale.

In my opinion BYU is a better representation of the LDS community, BYU is basically a melting pot of members from around the country (and even some from foreign countries).

We have also seen that the assumption of this nation/world, that whenever something happens in Utah it is automatically accredited to the LDS church. This is a view many have and when ever something bad happens, by a member or nonmember alike, the church takes a hit for it.

Suicide is such a horrible thing, I am glad no one has successfully committed suicide here. It has got to be such a hard trial for a family to endure.

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